1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a gate driving circuit and a display apparatus including the gate driving circuit. More particularly, the present invention relates to a gate driving circuit which prevents a drive malfunction thereof and a display apparatus including the gate driving circuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a liquid crystal display includes a liquid crystal display panel to display a desired image thereon. The liquid crystal display panel typically includes a lower substrate, an upper substrate facing the lower substrate and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the lower substrate and the upper substrate.
The liquid crystal display panel further includes a plurality of gate lines, a plurality of data lines and a plurality of pixels, each of which is connected to a corresponding gate line of the plurality of gate lines and a corresponding data line of the plurality of data lines. A gate driving circuit which sequentially outputs a gate signal to the gate lines is directly formed on the liquid crystal display panel through a thin film process.
The gate driving circuit typically includes a shift register including a plurality of stages, and individual stages of the plurality of stages are each connected one after another, e.g., are cascaded. Each stage includes transistors and capacitors.
However, when the gate driving circuit is driven in a high, e.g., above normal, temperature environment, a threshold voltage of the transistors in each stage decreases. Thus, when a noise signal having a higher voltage level than the threshold voltage (which is lowered in the high temperature environment) is applied to a gate electrode of the transistors, the transistors are unintentionally turned on. In particular, when the noise signal is applied to gate electrodes of transistors connected to an output terminal of each stage, the transistors connected to the output terminals are inadvertently turned on during a turn-off period of the transistors. As a result, a gate voltage having an abnormal state is provided to the liquid crystal display panel through the output terminal, and the liquid crystal display panel thereby displays an abnormal image, e.g., an undesired image, in response to the gate voltage having the abnormal state. Further, the noise signal applied to a gate node of transistor connected to output terminal of each stage controls an operation of a next stage, since the stages of the shift register are cascaded. Therefore, the drive malfunction which occurs in a given stage causes a drive malfunction in adjacent cascaded stages, thereby further causing display malfunctions of the liquid crystal display.
Thus, it is desired to develop a gate driving circuit capable of preventing the abovementioned drive malfunction when operating in a high temperature operating environment, and a liquid crystal display having the same.